Nationally recognized for prioritizing the mental health of its students, Brock University has taken on an external brand focused on supporting Canadian student-athletes.<\/p>\n
The Student-Athlete Mental Health Initiative (SAMHI), which ceased operations in August 2023, has transferred ownership of its brand and social media networks to its longtime collaborator, the Centre for Healthy Youth Development through Sport (CHYDS)<\/a> at Brock University.<\/p>\n CHYDS is a leader in Canadian youth sport research and evidence-based practices for youth health and development through sport. Adding the SAMHI brand and networks to CHYDS\u2019s portfolio strengthens its outreach, research and collaboration opportunities, says Corliss Bean, CHYDS Director and Brock Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies.<\/p>\n \u201cSAMHI has worked to establish a strong, trusting connection with the post-secondary student-athlete community over the past 15 years,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are excited to continue this legacy and grow SAMHI as a hub for research and knowledge exchange across Canada to reach student-athletes, leaders and other key knowledge users in Canadian intercollegiate sport.\u201d<\/p>\n In transitioning to Brock, SAMHI\u2019s activities will not focus exclusively on research or activities at the University. Under the leadership of CHYDS member and Brock Professor of Kinesiology Philip Sullivan, SAMHI\u2019s knowledge mobilization platforms will share research and best practices from research institutions and professionals across Canada that focus on supporting the mental health of Canadian university student-athletes.<\/p>\n \u201cSAMHI has served an overlooked yet important population for several years,\u201d says Sullivan. \u201cUniversity student-athletes in Canada have a relatively high prevalence of a wide variety of mental health issues. They have specific mental health challenges and barriers that are different from university students who are not athletes and are different from student-athletes in the United States.”<\/p>\n Sullivan says his research suggests that 20 per cent of student-athletes in Canada have rates of depression and anxiety that are indicative of a moderate to severe mental health disorder. Other research shows that university coaches and those who support student-athletes have about the same amount of mental health literacy as the general population.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important more information about student-athlete mental health is shared with coaches, athletes and others who support student-athletes,\u201d says Sullivan. \u201cWe need to continue efforts to reduce the stigma of mental health issues and to increase the awareness of its prevalence among student-athletes. SAMHI\u2019s brand and platforms will help with this.\u201d<\/p>\n SAMHI\u2019s former President, Samantha DeLenardo is thankful to the CHYDS team for their leadership in adopting SAMHI\u2019s brand and carrying on its important knowledge mobilization efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Sullivan and his team have the resources and expertise to continue SAMHI\u2019s mission to protect and promote student-athlete mental health,\u201d she says. \u201cCHYDS\u2019s role in putting the best evidence into practice is critical to achieving that goal. I am thrilled for this next chapter for SAMHI.\u201d<\/p>\n CHYDS has assumed ownership of the name and logo of the Student-Athlete Mental Health Initiative and its Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> accounts. SAMHI\u2019s charitable status has been voluntarily revoked, and samhi.ca<\/u> is no longer active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nationally recognized for prioritizing the mental health of its students, Brock University has taken on an external brand focused on supporting Canadian student-athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":94622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,9794,1],"tags":[28,112,256,4437,10357,10477,9912,996,3602,7488,5541,5505,15,926,4327,83,1813],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94618"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94628,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94618\/revisions\/94628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}